Page 11 of Can't Win 'Em All
Rex turned indignant. “I didn’t say he didn’t love you. I said I love Livvie more … and I stand by that.”
We glared at one another.
“Anyway,” he said after a beat. “I don’t want this to ruin our friendship.”
‘What friendship? We’re acquaintances.”
“Oh, come on, Ruby.” He shook his head. “You’ve always been my favorite of Zach’s sisters. We work together. We have a solid rapport. I don’t want to lose that because we got drunk and did something stupid.”
“So, so stupid,” I agreed under my breath.
That nudged a smile out of him. “We don’t have to tell anybody, do we? I don’t want your mom and sisters to give me dirty looks. I didn’t mean for this to happen or anything. I would never take advantage of you. That’s not who I am.”
I already knew that. As annoying as I found him—and right now he was really, really annoying—Rex was not a predator. He hadn’t hatched a plan to steal my virtue. In fact, he’d tried to escape before I dragged him out to the dance floor. That had led to another two drinks for each of us. Those final two drinks were what caused us to lose our heads.
“Nobody needs to know, Rex,” I promised him. “We both had a lapse in judgment.” I was rueful. “It was just an accident.”
“I’m usually way more careful. I know I have a certain reputation, but I don’t normally jump into bed with someone just to jump into bed with them. That’s not who I am. I always try to be a good guy about this stuff.”
“I think I just had an itch I wanted to scratch,” I admitted. “My father kept me under his thumb for so long…” I trailed off. That was not a happy subject.
“Your father was an ass,” Rex replied. “He was horrible to all three of you girls. He wasn’t much better to Zach. He just made sure the horror he heaped on you was different than the horror he heaped on Zach. Don’t ever base your self-worth on anything your father said.”
I was surprisingly touched by his words. “Thank you, Rex.”
“I really don’t want this to ruin our friendship, Ruby.” He held out his hands. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I would never take advantage of you.”
Pity welled up, and I nodded. “You didn’t take advantage of me, Rex. I promise. We’re good. I mean … I think we’ll have a few days of not being able to look each other in the eye, but after that, we’ll probably forget all about it.”
Or get better at pretending that we’ve forgotten about it,I silently added.
He exhaled heavily. “I appreciate that. I just … your family is important to me. Believe it or not, you’re important to me.” He poked my cheek in annoying fashion to cut down on the mush.
“Knock it off.” I slapped his hand away, then softened. “We’re good, Rex.”
“Okay.” He rolled out of bed, showing off his glorious ass. Man, did I really need to see that when things were getting better? Why? Come on. This was obviously torture.
“You know, you said you were fine on the STDs.” Rex pulled on his black knit boxers. “What about pregnancy, though?” He looked legitimately worried.
“It’s fine. I get the shot.”
“Okay.” He cracked a smile, his relief palpable. “Whew.” He mimed wiping invisible sweat off his brow. “So, we’re both agreed that we’ll avoid each other for a week and then pretend nothing happened, right?”
Despite myself, I burst out laughing. “That sounds like a plan to me.”
“I was hoping you would say that.”
“Then I guess today is your lucky day.”
4
FOUR
THREE MONTHS LATER
Spending time with my father was my least favorite thing to do. On that particular list, he ranked above getting moles burned off, getting a wax after a winter of neglect to my nether region, and being forced to eat year old fruitcake for an eating contest. That’s how bad he was.
He seemed to take joy in irritating me. Actually, he seemed to take joy in irritating all of us.
